So, it's been hard to write lately (some kind of health issue), and now I'm trying to get back into the swing of things. Since it's been so long since the last time I updated anything, I'm kinda thinking of extending that time a bit more so I can update/add multiple things at once. The plan, right now, is:

1: Write epilogue for Charon & Sharing.2: Upload the latest version of Dark Side of the Moon to FF.net. (I might edit it some.)3: Update Not Half Bad, maybe add a new chapter, and upload it to FF.net.4: Add a new chapter to A Pony by Any Other Name.5: Finish the next chapter of A Martial Artist's Life is Fraught with Trouble. (It's been half-done for a while, now.)6: Add One Good Poke Deserves Another to my site.

Not necessarily in that order. My head's not completely in the game yet, so something as important as an epilogue is something I'll tackle later. Right now, I'm working on Not Half Bad, and just finished one of the bigger changes to it (Ranma's reason for putting on the skin suit). I'm hoping that I'll finish going over the rest of it before the end of the day.

Lately, I've been distracted by three story ideas despite having priorities.

One is a story where Ranma has fae ancestry, encounters a faery while on a training trip with his father, and gets tricked into becoming a faery himself because his idea of being cured of his curse is different from the faery's. He can use glamour to appear human and male, but his curiosity and mischievous side inspire adventures, pranks, and the discovery of other fun and useful things about being a faery. It's just some light-hearted and humorous thing I've been musing about.

The next story is a serious romantic story between Ranma and Akane, which follows what course they take if the last piece of the moxibustion chart isn't found (or found so soon), who go on a journey together. I've considered a lot of directions for the story to take, but I haven't been able to decide on any one of them. A common theme among them is that they visit shrines, temples and such to see if anyone knows how to remove the moxibustion's effects. (I've considered crossovers with Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, and Aa! Megami-sama!). Another common theme is Ranma finding a way to fight despite the moxibustion, or giving up on being strong and finding something else meaningful in his life. In all cases, Ranma and Akane grow closer together, though I haven't decided the exact nature of their relationship (if Akane is intimate to a male Ranma, a female Ranma, both, or if they simply become close friends).

The last story was something that grew from an idea where Ranma becomes friends with Yuka and Sayuri, which eventually turned into something along a similar vein to Kenko's Girl Days. After an encounter with Yuka and Sayuri, where one enlists Ranma's aid to get a discount at a patisserie (they had their stomach set on a particular treat, but getting it wouldn't have left them with enough money for what they had saved their allowance for), they can't help engaging in conversation because of Ranma's behavior (trying to portray himself as being manly, but willingly acting like a girl and/or flirting with guys for whatever reason). They don't get much out of Ranma, beyond "you wouldn't understand," until they notice that Ranma is afraid of something and work on that angle to get something out of him. For reasons that are too long for me to write about (being lazy, not wanting to spoil anything and wanting to get back to doing something else), which includes what I've mentioned so far, I'll just say that it leads Ranma to convince his mother that it would be manly for him if he stays a girl for a while so he can grow to accept it as much as being a guy.

Well, I checked the poll on my FF.net profile, and it looks like I'll have to push up that Slayers crossover that I never got around to in my queue. Back in the day I was holding out to get the manga, but that never worked out. (I'm not even sure if all of the manga relevant to the first season of the anime had been released.) I have the first three seasons of the anime, with the first one being the only one I really need for the story, but I'm unsure if the box set I have was the one with all-working episodes or not (There were a couple of episodes on one disc, either the first or second, which wouldn't work for whatever reason).